New Semester begins this week - Spring 2012

With some trepidation I am looking forward to this new semester at Coker College. Overall we have a great selection of classes for the Communication majors and minors and I have a personally rich schedule. This semester I have one public speaking class, a public relations writing class, a persuasion class and a marketing communication class. The trepidation is that the last three are especially time intensive for both the students and instructor and all three have changed significantly since my last time teaching them - about two years ago.

Communication has been changing more than just about any facet of human existence over the past few years and keeping up with these changes is challenge for the classroom. You are right, some basic principles never change and we will get to them. The problem is channels, delivery, audience, audience segmentation methods, results, time frames are radically changed from just two years ago. Persuasion is where I might get the biggest argument from others who say how could that change. We are still using principles brought to us so clearly by Aristotle. I am with you on that. Now, two years ago would most of us have thought that channels of communication would have changed so much that an "Arab Spring" would not only be feasible; it would have happened? This is another example of the cliched or proverbial "double-edged sword." The reason I love teaching in the communication field so much is the dynamism of the subject area. The reason it seems such a challenge is the dynamism of the field.

Looking forward to seeing what this next 16 weeks have to offer.

T